A fire at the Village Shopping Plaza (corner of Robert Burns Avenue and Cote St-Luc Road), on 5 May 2024, has gutted the interior of the building. Arson is suspected. The building was destined to be demolished but this kept being postponed; maybe this pushes up the date for demolition and new construction.
Photographs of the Robert Burns Pub located beside the Village Shopping Plaza.
The old Village Shopping Plaza has been vandalized, windows broken, things falling apart, garbage strewn everywhere, junk from inside the building littering the area; the old Robert Burns Pub has also been vandalized. Nature is taking over; first it destroys, then it occupies, then it's returned to the source.
The Village Shopping Plaza is boarded up; cement barriers keep people from parking their cars in the large parking lot behind the buildings, no one is dumping their garbage there anymore... But you can always depend on someone to change the plans. Looks like someone has entered the building with a ladder, not sure if this was done by the owners or by someone else. As far as I know we don't have squatters around here, but maybe we do.
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| Note the surveillance camera on the window on the right |
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| More junk piled outside |
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| The sky over the Village Shopping Plaza |
The windows are boarded, the doors are locked, electrical wires are disconnected, the water has been turned off, the halls are empty, the stores are closed and littered with junk, the rooms and halls are in darkness, The Knights of Columbus moved years ago, stores have relocated, stores have closed permanently, no children at the daycare, no one buying bread and bagels at the bakery, no antiques being sold, concrete stairs are disintegrating, windows are closed, everything is silent, the parking lot has been sealed off with large concrete blocks, no one is here, no beer or food being consumed at the Robert Burns Pub, what's left to do? Tear it down, tear it down and build some condos say the developers. Tear it down and let us make money say the developers. It`s just an eyesore now, so tear it down! Soon, the Village Shopping Plaza will be demolished.
BTW, this location would have been a good site for a commuter train station (talk has included a train station behind the Cote-St-Luc Shopping Centre). There is lots of room here for parking, it's close to the train tracks, and it's a very large piece of land with an adjacent piece of land for sale next to it. Just an idea...
